In my U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,300, I have described a hook fastener for garments in which the two members to be interconnected by the hook action, connected to two parts of a garment to be so connected, include a stirrup or bridge structure and a tongue or lug structure which operate by insertion of the stirrup in a window into which the tongue extends so that tension can then pull the stirrup over the tongue or the tongue into the stirrup. The two members are generally flat and the tongue lies in the plane of one member while the stirrup projects from the plane of the other.
Mention may also be made of the maternity nursing brassiere fastener described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,728 in which another hook utilizing an eye or window in one of the strap links is provided.
In an application of such closure for a nursing brassiere, one of the members of the closure is a link between a support strap and the cup-forming member of the brassiere while the other member of the fastener is attached to a flap which covers the nursing breast when the fastener is secured, but which exposes the nursing nipple when the fastener is unhooked.
Such closures also may be used on opposite edges of an undergarment, for example the rear or front closures of a brassiere and can be stitched along edges of the fabric garment which are to be held together by the fastener.
While these earlier fasteners have proved to be highly effective in use and are in widespread use today, improvement has been found to be desirable.